Intel
Intel Core i7-4790K
Devil's Canyon, and the end of the line for LGA1150: 4C/8T at a 4.0 GHz base and 4.4 GHz turbo, with improved internal TIM and an unlocked multiplier. In 2026 it is the chip people buy used to get a few more years out of a Z97 board instead of replacing the whole platform.
Pros
- Highest-clocked chip on the socket at 4.0 GHz base / 4.4 GHz turbo, and the fastest single-thread performance of any LGA1150 part
- Eight threads with 8 MB L3 — still adequate for 1080p gaming paired with a mid-range GPU
- Devil's Canyon TIM and extra package capacitors make 4.6-4.7 GHz on all cores a common air-cooled result
- VT-d and TSX restored versus the i7-4770K
- AVX2/FMA3, PCIe 3.0 x16 and HD Graphics 4600 at 1250 MHz
Cons
- 88 W base power that becomes 130 W-plus overclocked; the boxed-style low-profile coolers are not enough
- Four cores and eight threads now causes visible frametime stutter in current game engines
- DDR3-1600 official support and a 32 GB memory ceiling — no DDR4 path on this socket
- NVMe boot depends entirely on the board; many Z97 BIOSes need a modded ROM
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Intel Core i7-4790K
General
- Announced
- 2014
- Socket
- LGA1150
- Process
- 22 nm
- Base TDP
- 88 W
- Unlocked multiplier
- Yes
- Cooler included
- Yes
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 4
- Performance cores
- 4
- Efficiency cores
- 0
- Threads
- 8
- Base clock
- 4 GHz
- Boost clock
- 4.4 GHz
- L2 cache
- 1 MB
- L3 cache
- 8 MB
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Intel HD Graphics 4600
- iGPU clock
- 1,250 MHz
Memory
- Memory support
- DDR3-1600
- Max memory
- 32 GB
- Memory channels
- 2
Platform
- PCIe version
- 3
- CPU PCIe lanes
- 16
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 1,350
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 4,600
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 1,100
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 5,250
- PassMark
- 8,900
Quick answers
Is the Intel Core i7-4790K good in 2026?
The Intel Core i7-4790K earns an Inno Score of 27.9/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. Devil's Canyon, and the end of the line for LGA1150: 4C/8T at a 4.0 GHz base and 4.4 GHz turbo, with improved internal TIM and an unlocked multiplier. In 2026 it is the chip people buy used to get a few more years out of a Z97 board instead of replacing the whole platform.
What are the key specs of the Intel Core i7-4790K?
Cores: 4 · Threads: 8 · Boost clock: 4.4 GHz · Socket: LGA1150
What are the closest alternatives to the Intel Core i7-4790K?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Core i7-6700K, Intel Core i5-9400F, Intel Core i5-8400 — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.